Tonight there will be a "super full moon," the largest to be seen in almost 20 years. Sadly here in the city it will be obscured by street lights and wires and all of the inconsequential paraphernalia that relegates nature to a sideshow.
When I see it rising large over the buildings I will long for a grassy knoll far away in the countryside without a city wall where I can stand in the pale light of this lonely satellite.
Some people are affected by the moon. I have never thought much of this but I wonder now; I wonder if its light will illuminate a path somewhere.
“The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. told USA Today.
The Super Moon will appear especially large because the moment of perigee—when the moon is closest to the Earth in its monthly rotation—will coincide with the appearance of a perfectly full moon, apparently.
It's hard not to look at the moon and to feel shiver run through your body or to imagine the features of a perfectly well known stranger.
But Shelley should have the last word because Shelley had a way with words, even if his moon was no super moon but a frail and lonely fragment in a cold sea of cloud.
To The Moon
Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth, -
And ever changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lovely post David. Tonight's moon should be spectacular. Shelley certainly did have a way with words. Here's an excerpt from 'To A Skylark' which has a dreamy moon reference :
ReplyDeleteThe pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of heaven
In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight --
Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear
Until we hardly see -- we feel that it is there.
All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud,
As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.
Hope you get to enjoy this moon...even if you are stuck in the city.
Great poem Tracy - love it, cloudy, though, sadly
Deletehmm I may have to check out the moon tonight. I heard this was coming but didn't know when.
ReplyDeleteCool Alyson - I hope you got to see it
DeleteIt's not looking good for us in coastal Massachusetts. Moonrise here is 7:38 pm but the forecast says partly cloudy with fog. :(
ReplyDeleteI know eh JoJo - was the same here. For some reason I thought you were on the west coast.
DeleteI think this deserves a drive to the country. With champagne. Sigh.
ReplyDeletewell to be fair I think every drive should involve champagne Jen
DeleteVery nice post, David. I'm hoping to see the moon tonight. I'm going to be up late chaperoning the after prom activities for my son's prom, so maybe I'll catch sight of the moon on the way there. :)
ReplyDeletethanks Daisy - hope you got a glimpse
Delete"Brits in the USA" has been included in this weeks A Sunday Drive. I hope this helps to attract even more new visitors to here.
ReplyDeletehttp://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2012/05/sunday-drive.html
Cool Jerry - I'll check it out thanks
DeleteThat super full moon fell on an auspicious, religious day for some of us Hindus...so extra special attention for the moon. As it is, our part of the world marks imp days by the lunar calendar. Yes, we're all a little moony.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful poem.